Registration by day 15 important for funding
Utah State University administration will report the total number of students attending on Monday to the State Board of Regents to determine future funding.
“[The Board] uses that day to determine our enrollment and, of course, we are funded based on that,” said Fred Hunsaker, vice president for Administrative Services.
Rich Jacobs, budget director at USU, said the problem arises when students are still deciding what they want to do on the 15th day. This may cause USU to accomodate students for whom they have not received state funding.
Joyce Kinkead, vice provost for Undergraduate Studies, said it is in the students’ best interest to “solidify” their schedules before day 15 of the term. It decreases the cost of school in general and can help defray the effects of bottleneck classes.
Jacobs said the Board of Regents looks at how many credits each student takes as well. The average is 15 credits and the number of students is actually calculated by the total number of credits divided by 15.
“It helps us a lot if students will carry the 15 credit average,” Kinkead said.
She said students would be wise to use financial aid more than a part-time job. Good students often take less than the 15 credits required to graduate in four years because they have to work as well as go to school.
Rather than working through school and taking less credits, the additional money made in the workplace after graduation is well-worth the financial aid or loans a student might take out, she said.